[h=1]Alaska seabird die-off takes a strange turn with carcasses found at freshwater lake[/h]
Dan Joling | Associated Press March 17, 2016
Lake Iliamna in Southwest Alaska is North America's eighth-largest lake, but nobody would mistake it for the Pacific Ocean. Not even a seabird.
So when thousands of common murres were found dead at the lake -- part of a massive die-off of a species whose preferred winter habitat is at sea -- seabird experts were puzzled.
"We've talked about unprecedented things about this die off. That's another one," said John Piatt, research wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.
...
Scientists in multiple federal agencies are trying to determine if the murre deaths are connected to lack of food, parasites, disease, weather or something else, but they keep being pitched curves, like birds showing up in surprising places.
"This is the thing about this die-off," Piatt said. "We don't even know what we don't know."
